The Union
The Union was an organisation dedicated to ensuring the survival of the human race formed in 2014 by Daniel Klein, the then-CEO of Taurus Technologies. They are known for their outspoken views about the potential dangers of multiverse technology, although this would not be taken seriously until the creation of the QED. History Founding In May, 2014, Daniel Klein stumbled upon InfiniCorp files detailing exploration of A02, utilising technology developed in secret after World War II and kept a secret by the British government. Realising the potential dangers the technology could bring, Klein made it his life goal to put a stop to InfiniCorp's plans and prevent humanity from ever achieving multiverse travel. With the help of his CSO, Miles Warwick, and his COO, Harlan Mitchell, Klein gathered enough followers to his side to attack InfiniCorp online, gaining the attention of the media, although his identity remained unknown, along with his lieutenant's. A month later, he sold his company to Vasilovich Engineering, and used his vast fortune to fund the building of a large base of operations into the side of the White Cliffs of Dover. The Union would remain headquartered there until it was eventually destroyed by Jake McIntyre in 2043. Early Years Throughout the years, the Union operated in the shadows, quietly sabotaging InfiniCorp operations where they could, most notably during the Venezuelan Revolution of 2040, and prevented the Confederate from retrieving a large amount of Byzantium from their storage facility there. During the First Oil War, the Union remained neutral, but sent supplies to aid the European Union when they were invaded by the United States. Through their undermining of InfiniCorp operations and exposing their illegal dealings to the public, the Union earned the endearment of the British government, with the except of the Director of MI6, Bainbridge Sirovsky, who Klein found was working with InfiniCorp. In 2042, he was granted permission to bring down InfiniCorp by the Prime Minister. In 2042, the Union set its eyes on Jake McIntyre, a young detective inspector who was investigating InfiniCorp after an accident in London. After InfiniCorp framed McIntyre for killing Julius Kaufmann, their security chief, Klein bailed him out and took him to the Cliff Headquarters, where he inducted Jake into the Union. Jake then went on to provide them with anything he could dig up on InfiniCorp. The Union, McIntyre included, participated in a government-sponsored raid of InfiniCorp's HQ in Dover but were beaten back by highly trained security forces before they could capture James Saturday. During this raid, Jake McIntyre was persuaded to join InfiniCorp instead, and the Union lost a significant source of information. After both Warwick and Mitchell were killed by McIntyre, and Klein by James Saturday, Klein's last lieutenant, Jack Washington, stepped into the role of the Union's leader. His arrival changed the Union's goal drastically, to the destruction of the newly-formed Confederate rather than the protection of humanity. To draw out the Confederate, Washington launched an attack on several oil rigs in the Arabian Gulf, and laid in ambush, but they were defeated by the Confederate ship Excalibur. ''Washington fled the battle via helicopter, which was shot down by McIntyre, although he survived. Washington was then expelled by the Union council for straying from their goals, and issued a death sentence, but escaped. A Third Party (2044 - 2060) A change in political parties in the United Kingdom to one sympathetic to the Union forced the Confederate to relocate to America in 2044. Hailed as heroes, the Union quickly gained support throughout Europe. A new leader, Gordon Watson, was appointed. The United Coalition Front's arrival in 2048 put the Union's goal to test. They had invaded from another universe like Klein had predicted, and aimed to take over the rest of the planet for "their" people. Nevertheless, the Union remained neutral, still recovering from the disastrous after-effects of Washington's short reign. Watson was partially responsible for preventing the European Union from launching nuclear weapons at the UCF, convinced that they could potentially be negotiated with. He was then offered an alliance by Killian deChristo. As population was quickly becoming a problem with the UCF, the Union turned its attention to the skies, and began projects to colonise another planet, even though it did not know where it could go to achieve such a goal. Signal (2062 - 2111) In 2064, the Union intercepted a broadcast from an unknown source from the edge of the Solar System, and shared this information with the Confederate and UCF, theorising it may be extraterrestrials. The discovery and successful access of A04 brought conflict to the Union council. They had opposed multiverse technology before, but other universes held the key to living space for the overcrowding Earth. As such, the Union doctrine was adjusted to accept the technology, and they participated in an arms race against the Confederate and UCF to secure A04. In 2090, Gordon Watson signed the Treaty of Three Worlds, and as a result, the Union received massive funding for its space program, establishing Union Space Command by 2101. A joint Confederate-Union-UCF base was built on Mars in 2104. In 2109, the source of the mysterious transmissions was finally identified to be a massive alien spacecraft, around the size of Texas, which was approaching Earth at an alarming rate. The Union attempted to contact the occupants of the ship, but received no response. For this reason, the Union began building up defenses in Europe, anticipating an invasion. Invasion (2112 - 2115) ''Main Article: First Human-Daluran War The Union was in the process of evacuating civilians from A01 when America was obliterated by orbital nuclear weapons from the Daluran Mothership. Hans Callusian, the leader of the Union, was summoned to a meeting with Nigel Winters and Paulius Addenus to discuss the situation. After the UCF's second attack on the Dalurans, the Union allied itself with the Confederate for the first time since its inception to drive the UCF out of A01 and prevent the war from starting anew. This, however, failed, and the war continued. When Dominic Alberan was killed in battle, Archetype agents obtained several parts of his body which were then transferred to a lab for studying. The Union also kept live Daluran specimens to experiment on, in preparation for further attacks in the future. Neutrality and the Pestilence (2116 - 2135) Despite threats directed against the Union by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Callusian was convinced that they were no threat, although he increased funding to the United Military. As he had guessed, the Horsemen focused their attacks on the Confederate. By 2118, after gleaning the plans to reverse-engineer Daluran warp drives from the Confederate, the Union reached the mineral-abundant planet of Chiraz, and built a mining operation to harvest the necessary material to forge Byzantium. They also controlled North Frindalis, as opposed to the UCF-led south. In 2120, the Union found itself fighting the Exiles, and their leader, the Pariah, after the latter assassinated a Union official for unknown reason at the time. It was during this time that Union High Command learned to respect the abilities of the Pariah and his team, especially Roy Damascus, who repeatedly hacked into Union servers for intelligence. The Union yet against allied itself with the Confederate to end the Horsemen, and were responsible for destroying defenses on the End Times, allowing Sebastian Stagner to sacrifice himself and push the Horsemen and himself into a black hole. Main Article: The Great Pestilence In 2131, a team of Union geologists researching the Frindalis landscape stumbled upon a cache of weapons hidden by the Horsemen, and accidentally released a deadly virus which quickly swept across Frindalis, infecting all lifeforms it could find. Union teams were deployed on Frindalis, but were all quickly wiped out. The Union also began searching for a cure, but failed to discover one until the arrival of Ark, a boy with a gene that rendered him immune to the virus. However, before the cure could be distributed, Helena had succeeded in absorbing the Pestilence and ending the threat. The vaccines were kept in cryogenic storage on Chiraz. Dealings with Einz Exodus (2136 - 2267) A new threat was recognised by the Union in 2166 when Jim Sarcos built the first Planetary Mass Imploder, and plans were made to acquire one of the prototypes in order to even the playing field. In 2167 Archetype agents succeeded in building a similar weapon, but this was kept secret from the Three Generals. When the Einz Exodus arrived in A01 and A02 to hunt Venators that had fled there, the Union were sympathetic to the Venators, seeing them as the next step in human evolution, and sided with them rather than Einz. They provided shelter for the Venators, and sabotaged any Einz attempts to capture or kill them. The response was to sanction half of all Union trade routes, which set the Union back economically a few years in comparison to the Confederate or UCF. In 2254, as FTL-capable B-class universes were found, the Union expanded its empire into the Andromeda Galaxy, setting up more mining outposts to harvest even more resources. Gilgamesh (2268 - 2512) Main Article: Gilgamesh Archetype agents discovered the location of the Fountain of Youth in 2271, and moved to secure it. Just before they destroyed it, however, they were attacked by the IVD, who wanted the chemical for themselves, and suffered heavy losses. Nevertheless the fountain was destroyed. Even though the Union saw Venators as fellow human beings, Gilgamesh became an exception. As their goal was to preserve humanity, and Gilgamesh stood in their way, the Union offered Einz Exodus their assistance in destroying the Type-B Venator. Although they did not succeed, they earned the endearment of the Einz Exodus and sanctions were removed. Union soldiers chased down the Domus Ordinis assassin that had killed Ferid Jancic, but failed to capture him. This was the first official confrontation with a Domus Ordinis member, and the Union suffered light injuries. Towards the end of the 25th century, the Union received a large influx of Huumonlic immigrants, including Sace BiLaya. This brought a massive cultural change to the Union, with new artforms and sports being intorduced in a matter of years. The Beginning of the End (2513 - 2791) Alarmed by the construction of the QED, the Union contacted the Einz Exodus for help, but were turned down due to Einz interest in the weapon's potential abilities. They allied themselves with the Second Order Exiles, and aided Helena in slowing the progress on the QED. Wary of the Union threat, the Confederate initiated a mass purge of Union agents from all universes, using the Silencer Guard to hunt down and execute important figures. Once the Three Generals were killed, the remaining Unionists were forced to join the Confederate or face the same fate. The United Space Command ships became part of the Confederate Space Navy, tripling its size. Legacy The destruction and assimilation of the Union was the last straw to push the Einz Exodus and UCF into an all-out war against the Confederate, to prevent completion of the QED. Surviving Union members aided the resistance, and contributed heavily to the use of Venators against the Confederate, until 3003. Traits Territories In total, the Union has controlled 897 territories on 356 planets, across 204 universes. Notable Union territories include: Demographics Population Before its destruction at the hands of the Confederate, the Union had a total of 980 billion citizens. Due to the massive influx of Huumonlics in 2510, a large portion of the population is Huumonlic, particularly Dast Huumonlic. The largest human ethnic group in the Union populace is Afro-European, while the smallest is Asian. The largest Huumonlic ethnicity is Dast, while the smallest is Tam. Language The Union has three official languages: English, French and the Huumonlic dialect Prist. While only a small portion of the human population speak Prist, the entire Huumonlic population does. Similarly, only a small portion of the Huumonlic population speak English. However, an equal portion of the two races speak French. Languages spoken by citizens of the Union as of 2791 A.D. Religion Despite the general decline of religion, the Union has preserved many traditions, particularly old human religions. The Huumonlic also have their own religion; however, this is different to the religion practiced by many members of the Royal Huumonlic Empire. The arrival of the ThoughtForms Horus and Morpheus also influenced many in the Union, although to a lesser extent. Related * Union High Command * United Army * United Air Force * United Navy * United Space Command * Union Research Labs * Union Secret Service * Archetype Category:Organisation Category:Central Unison